Sanford M. Benardo

President (2017-2018)

New York; Massachusetts

Sanford M. Benardo has achieved global recognition within the legal and medical communities as an innovator in the fields of surrogate parenting and alternative family formation. For years, he has been a featured commentator when major television outlets cover stories related to assisted reproduction and adoption, and he is quoted often in domestic and international print media. He has represented intended parents, gestational carriers, traditional carriers, egg donors, donor egg recipients, donor egg facilities, hospitals, adoption agencies, adoptive parents, and birth parents as part of his broad-based fertility law practice.

Mr. Benardo sits on the American Bar Association's Subcommittees on Reproductive and Genetic Technologies, Adoption, and Ethics, Professionalism and Grievance. He is a past member of the Bioethical Issues Committee and the Children and the Law Committee of the New York City Bar Association. Additionally, he is a member of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM), the New England Fertility Society, the Hastings Center for Bioethical Research, and is a professional member of RESOLVE. Mr. Benardo is also a board member and advisor to several philanthropic and research organizations dedicated to expanding reproductive rights and reproductive choice. He is a graduate of New York University and the Fordham University School of Law, where he was a member of the Fordham International Law Journal. He is admitted to the Bars of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, the State of New York, and the United States District Court for the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York.